Disney to the Front

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and an army of their kindred cartoons join
the war effort at home and overseas.

By David Lesjak

In this illustration for the September
1942 issue of Coronet magazine, characters from Disney’s menagerie
take part in home front and front line activities. Donald Duck, as a marine,
symbolizes that the pen is now equal to the sword, while other characters
represent a variety of wartime roles: Thrifty Pig symbolizes the might of
industry, Minnie Mouse is a Red Cross volunteer, Dopey the dwarf purchases
war bonds, Flower the skunk is a member of the chemical warfare service, and
Thumper the rabbit is in the army signal corps. The insignia characters for
the Flying Tigers and the PT boat Mosquito Squadron in the sky represent two
of more than 1,200 designs created at the Disney studio.

Disney’s biggest home front endorsement
was for the Treasury Department. The studio produced two income tax films
and a multitude of bond- and savings-related advertising, making the
department one of the studio's largest wartime customers. The Victory
March interactive mechanical book was published in 1942 to be given
away as to youngsters to encourage them to purchase savings stamps. It
depicts the Big Bad Wolf and two little wolves as German, Japanese, and
Italian fascists. The wolves steal Donald Duck’s treasure chest, which
contained a savings stamp. Disney characters chase the wolves around various
Washington, DC, monuments. Written on behalf of Treasury, the book
originally included a savings booklet and one free war savings stamp.

Disney artists
created
a wealth of war-related material for many other federal, state, and local
government departments and agencies besides Treasury. This illustration was
designed for the War Manpower Commission in 1943, to try and convince
employees to stay at the jobs they were trained to do and help ease the
critical manpower shortage caused by men being drafted into the military. It
appeared in several magazines and was issued as a poster.

Disney supplied art to dozens of
organizations promoting various home front activities, from salvage and
scrap campaigns to blood donor drives. This promotional booklet, published
for the Los Angeles War Chest in 1943 and distributed to school children,
tells the story of Chesty, his two helpers Polly and Paul, and their
helicopter friend Coptie. The comic-strip-style story chronicles the group’s
travels--dropping
supplies gathered by the war chest to children and guerrilla fighters around
the world, and delivering money to a boy’s home and a hospital. The story
concludes with Polly and Paul returning to school, where they encourage
other children to help the war chest with their charitable work.

This second Los Angeles War Chest booklet,
published in 1944, features the same lead characters as the first. In this
edition, the booklet’s message has been updated to include current events:
the German buzz-bomb attacks on England; the second front in Europe, created
by the D-Day landings in Normandy; and B-29 bomber bases being built in
China.

The Fifth War Loan Drive in
1944
included the Series E small denomination bond. Disney allowed certificates
to be printed using the images of its most popular characters to promote the
Bonds for Babies campaign. One certificate was given to everyone who
purchased a bond in the name of a baby or young child.

During the war Americans had to deal the
inconvenience of food rationing. Sugar and coffee were the first items to be
rationed, followed by processed foods and meat and dairy products. This
circa 1943 booklet was held ration coupons. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and
Pluto are pictured on the cover, with seemingly satisfied expressions, after
leaving the Super Duper Market with their purchases.

Among
the most successful civilian participation campaigns was the one for Victory
Gardens, which encouraged Americans to grow and preserve their own fruits
and vegetables. This softcover Green Thumb Contest Record Book was used for
recording the types of crops grown and their quantity and weight.

Contests were held
at the local, state, and national levels, with the national winner taking
home a $1,000 war bond. Three variations of this book exist. All were
created for the Illinois War Council.

While
Americans
struggled to cope with food shortages and rationing, the citizens of the
isolated island nation of Britain suffered even more. In late 1941, Walt
Disney had artist Hank Porter design a family of carrots for England’s food
minister. The January 11, 1942, New York Times Magazine announced,
“England has a goodly store of carrots. But carrots are not the staple
items of the average English diet. The problem…is to sell carrots to (the)
country.” The front of this flyer features an illustration of Carroty
George, and the reverse, six different carrot recipes. The entire family of
Disney-designed carrots included Dr. Carrot, Pop Carrot, and Clara Carrot.
They were reproduced on a poster, in a recipe booklet, and in an extensive
newspaper ad campaign.

Over the course of the war, Disney artists
designed more than 1,200 combat insignia for all branches of the US military
and for its allies. Besides the famed Flying Tigers insignia, one of the
most celebrated designs was made for England’s Royal Air Force. Prior to
Pearl Harbor, many American pilots joined England’s Royal Air Force as
members of Eagle Squadrons 71, 121, and 133. An entry in a Hearst newspaper
insignia stamp album stated, "Walt Disney artists were quick to chronicle
the significance of this combat union with an American Eagle ‘on guard.’
Fiercely he advances to contest the fouling tactics of a barbarous and
un-sportsmanlike adversary, as he moves in to the attack with his English
‘comrade-at-arms.’”

The
insignia for the USS Escambia(AO-80) fleet refueler was
created by famed Disney artist Hank Porter, the man responsible for creating
the lion’s share of combat designs at the studio during the war.
Escambia, named after a river that flows through Georgia and Florida,
fueled ships during the invasion of the Marshall Islands, aircraft carriers
as they launched strikes against the Philippines, task forces vessels
supporting the invasion of Okinawa, and aircraft flying raids against Japan.
This mobile naval gas station was represented by a 50-gallon drum and Jose
Carioca, a character made famous in Disney’s two South American films,
Saludos Amigos and TheThree Caballeros. Virgil
Grier, who served aboard the Escambia said, “Ken Hackett reproduced
the insignia on each side of the bridge, where it drew admiring chuckles
from the crews of the ships we refueled.”

The newletter for the US Navy Reserve
Aviation Base in Hutchinson, Kansas, was called the "Hab''it'"--"Hab"
for Hutchinson aviation base, plus "it"--and was published biweekly. Volume
one, number five, a 20-page edition published in December 1942, featured the
base insignia on its front cover: Jiminy Cricket in an airplane with a
trailing anchor, which signified that Hutchinson was a navy base. The design
was created in October, but made its first public appearance here.

Christmas was often a depressing time of
the year for men serving overseas. To help raise morale, many units created
their own custom holiday greeting cards. Units with Disney-designed insignia
often incorporated their insignia into the design of their cards. This
particular postcard was sent out by men serving aboard the navy fleet oiler
USS Housatanic (AO-35). This tanker saw action in both the Atlantic
and South Pacific, where she delivered fuel oil for warships and high-octane
gasoline for aircraft.

The cover of the 13th Armored Division’s
greeting card featured the unit’s Disney-designed insignia, a collection of
bad luck symbols. Men in this unit paid no attention to the superstitious
overtones of their unit number. They felt it was the enemy who would suffer
misfortune when encountering them.

The USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) was
an Essex-class aircraft carrier that saw extensive action in the
South Pacific. Supporting the invasion of Okinawa, BunkerHill
was severely damaged when two Japanese kamikaze pilots successfully crashed
into her. The resulting explosions killed more than 340 crewmen.

While many units produced matchbooks
imprinted with their insignia, this 1942 box of 12 Maryland Match Company
insignia matchbooks was sold at corner grocery stores and five and dime
shops across America. There were a total of 20 different matchbooks in the
series. Each pictured a Disney insignia on the front side and the name of
the unit on the reverse.

Besides creating combat insignia, Disney
artists designed corporate logos for several military contractors. This
colourful certificate features the Beech Aircraft Company’s Disney-designed
insignia. The Beechcraft Busy Bee Honorary Award of Merit was given
employees and subcontractors who met or exceeded productivity levels and who
contributed ideas to help the company operate more efficiently. A cloisonné
pin in the shape of the insignia design was also distributed to employees.

This 26-page booklet was published by the
Aeronca Aircraft Corporation in 1943. The booklet told the story of the
Aeronca Grasshopper, a multi-purpose airplane. The Grasshopper was used for
artillery spotting, scouting, and air ambulance duties. Disney artists drew
all of the illustrations in the booklet, as well as the corporate logo on
the front cover. The general public could receive a copy of the booklet by
sending 10 cents in stamps to Aeronca’s publicity department.

This whimsical training booklet was
created for the US Army Air Force, Safety Education Division, Flight Control
Command. The concept simple: make a manual that would hold the attention of
an airman while teaching him the basic principles of cold weather flying in
a fun manner. Through humorous sketches, the booklet details the perils
Allied airmen could face while flying at high altitudes and in the very
cold. The featured characters are spandules, the winter cousins of author
Roald Dahl's mythical gremlins, which wreaked havoc on aircraft.

The Appreciate America illustration on
this cachet was originally designed by
Disney
for the US Department of Education in the fall of 1941. The department had a
series of eight patriotic posters created that featured different cartoon
strip characters, including Donald Duck, the Gumps, Orphan Annie, Joe
Palooka, and Harold Teen.